After fleeing from Aceh, one family ekes out a living

By Arief S.S.

JAKARTA (JP): Drops of sweat beaded on Karsi's forehead. The young woman sat in front of a machine dexterously making bottle caps. Behind her was her husband, Sarmin, bare-chested, doing the same job.

"We are doing this to survive," said Karsi.

Everyone must work to earn a living. What distinguishes them from the rest of the community is the fact that they are refugees from Aceh. They are staying in a house made of iron sheeting somewhere in Srengseng, West Jakarta along with their extended family of 21 people.

"We do not know how long we must stay here. Our children are still small but Aceh is still dangerous," said Karsi, a mother of four in her late 20s.

Karsi and her husband have been doing this job for six months. They work seven days a week. Every day they start at daybreak and do not stop until night falls. Never before had they imagined living in such circumstances and neither had Salia and Turima, her younger sisters, or their father, 58-year-old Waridi.

They were originally from Sambang village, Central Java. In 1982, Waridi asked his wife, Tukiyem, and his five children to move to Aceh and earn a living farming in the province, dubbed the Veranda of Mecca.

"I was poor and had nothing," Waridi said.

As a resettled person, Waridi and his two grown children, were each granted a two-hectare plot of land in Lhoksukon, Lhokseumawe district, North Aceh. "I planted cassava, bananas and paddy. My wife took care of the younger kids at home," he said. In his new home, Waridi fathered another child.

They enjoyed their new life until 1999, when most Acehnese demanded independence from Indonesia. Killings were the order of the day, committed by both sides, the Free Aceh Movement and the security forces. During these turbulent times, two of their family were murdered.

"My brother-in-law and his younger sibling were lost while selling tofu in the market. People in the market said they were whacked to death by a group of unidentified people," Karsi said, "Their bodies have never been found, though."

As the violence continued to worsen, in August 1999, Karsi, her husband and their four children fled to their home village in Central Java.

"As we had only Rp 800,000 cash, only our own family could flee. When we arrived in Java, we had only Rp 50,000 left," he said. "Father (Waridi) and our other relatives remained in Aceh because they had no money to come to Java," he added.

Those remaining in Aceh refused to be accommodated in a refugee camp. "We didn't want to stay there. It's a miserable place. A family gets only one cup of rice a day, you know. There is no clean water to drink," said Waridi.

In uncertain circumstances, Waridi and his family continued to work on their farm, selling their products at the market. It took them four months to collect Rp 2.5 million, enough money to take them to Java.

"I had to sell my house and when I got to Kebumen I had practically no money left," said Waridi, now having 13 grandchildren. His wife died in 1998 of heart failure.

"However, my second child, Rasminem, and her two children remain in Lhoksukon. She will stay there until she has news about her missing husband," he said.

After staying in Kebumen for a few months with irregular work, Waridi and his family decided to try their luck in Jakarta. Here they had to spend periods of uncertainty before they could get a job. They work at a yard where scrap iron sheeting is collected for making tin. While working here, Waridi said they continue to pin their hopes on the government opening up a new resettlement area in Riau, Jambi or Bengkulu.

"My husband and I actually would like to return to Aceh because we really feel at home there," said Karsi, who went to Aceh when she was 7.

"Especially because Mirah (pointing to her 4.5-year-old child) has a deep longing for Rasminem's child and her other friends there," she explained.

These refugees said they earned only a little. Bottle caps are sold at Rp 450/kg. Waridi said in a day he, and his sons-in-law, Sarmin and Simin could each make some 30 kg of bottle caps. Karsi and her younger sisters could make 30 kgs of bottle caps in two days.

"I have to take care of my small children," Karsi said. "If my children are being difficult, it will take me three days to produce that much."

"We really have a difficult life here. We have to buy vegetables from the vegetable hawker on credit," Karsi said. "We pay our debt at the end of the month but then we have to buy on credit again in the following days."